Twitter-dee, Twitter-dum
NY Times -2009

Sign-Up for a Twitter Account in Less Than 4 Minutes

10 Tips to New Educators using Twitter

1) Add a Bio to your profile

Whenever I get a new follower, I check on their Twitter account to see if they are worth following back. Then, I check their bio – the short piece of information that you add to your profile. If they say they are in the education field or an author, then I will follow them back. If there is no information here, then I am more wary of them, and most likely will not follow unless their tweets look interesting. It’s important to put something here – even if it’s just that you’re a teacher interested in Twitter.

2) Start Following Fellow Educators

The key to getting the most out of twitter is to learn from fellow teachers. Where do you find reading specialists? Principals? Biology Teachers? Once you find one teacher that has many followers, you have hit gold. Look to see who they are following and start following their followers. Just the other day, I was on an author's twitter page and was able to connect to at least fifteen other Middle Grade Authors. Thanks Eric Luper! Before you know it, you will be learning from other teachers things you never thought about before. Also – take a look at the “Who to Follow” page which will suggest other followers based on who you follow. Very handy.

Wiki with lists of teachers by Category (demonstrated on video)
Seven Ways to Follow Teachers on Twitter

3) Show us your Mug

A great thing about twitter is that you may never meet the people you follow. But, there maybe a time that you do meet your followers at a conference or education event. It is much easier to put a face with a twitter name than a picture or the default twitter egg. Some teachers will put their favorite book, an avatar or image that connects to a recent event (i.e. World Read Aloud Day)

4) Observe/Lurk/Stalk

Stop. I beg you. Stop here, stop now, do not go any farther. Take a break from doing anything extra on Twitter, for at least a week. We’ll call this your “Observation Week.”
Just like everything else, online or off, every group has its own set of unofficial operating rules. Twitter is no different. So, simply hang out on Twitter for awhile and follow (but do not post any of your own messages, just yet) the people you signed up to follow. Learn the terminology and the general protocol. Observe. Watch. Pay attention.
And, especially do NOT start following anyone else, just yet.

5) Learn the basic commands

Think of Twitter as a room full of people, all sitting in a circle. It’s a conversation. When you update your status, you are speaking to the whole group. Everyone can hear what you have to say.

Replies. If you want to direct your comments to one specific person in the circle, but loud enough that everyone else can hear, use the “Reply” function. You address the person by using their twitter name preceded by the “@” symbol. For example:

Everyone who is following Susan Dee and me will see the message, but Susan directly sent it to ewitt43. (Those who are not following both of us will not see the message.)

You can also use the Reply function to refer to someone by name. For example:

The thing about replies is that they are “clickable links.” If someone who is following me, clicks on one of the names, they will automatically go to that person’s Twitter page. This will give them the opportunity to follow that person, too.

Direct Messages. Continuing with the metaphor of a conversation with a room full of people, you can also use the “direct message” function. This is like whispering in one person’s ear. They can hear you, but no one else can. You are directing the message to them and only them. For example:

Retweet. You just had a conversation with one person but wish that other people would have been there to listen to the conversation. The "retweet" function will allow you to do just this, share information with everyone who missed the initial conversation. For Example:

Susan Dee and On the ClassroomWall retweeted my March Madness Book Contest I held back in March. They wanted to share this information with the rest of their followers.

6) Start Twittering

So now you are all setup. It’s time to start Twittering. You can do this from your Twitter home page.The main thing you need to know is that the message can be no longer than 140 characters long. If you use the Web page, the entry field will automatically count your characters. After a while, you’ll instinctively know how long this is. I rarely go over the limit. But if you do, it’s no big deal. Your message will just be truncated.

How often should you Twitter? That’s the 30-character question. I try to check-in at lest ones a day. Sometimes, I will check it out before and after school. On the weekends and summer, if I am hanging out at home, I might have twitter on all day long. Why not learn some great ideas, websites or the newest books from my biggest PLN.

Just remember to make each tweet worth people reading or responding to your tweet.

7) Read What You Want To Read

As your followers increase, comes more and more tweet feeds. And like me, you don't have have to read all of them everyday. You will find after awhile, that some people's tweets are worth reading more so then others. Think about all of your facebook friends, do you read everything they always write? You would drive yourself nuts if you read it all. Learn to scan through and ready what you can.

8) Organize Your Followers into Lists for Easy Viewing

If you are following people from a group or organization, set up a list and add each of them into the list when you first follow them. This will help you remember why you followed them in the first place. It will also allow you to view all of the latest tweets from any group of people in one click.

Here is a list I'm making with all the author's that I follow. Here Susan Dee's list of author's that she follows on twitter.

9) Continue the conversation by leaving comments on their blogs...

As you start interacting more you will take part in more and more conversations. You will find that many of these conversations can lead to future blog posts. Take time to read the blogs of people with whom you interact, and make sure to continue the conversation by leaving comments. By leaving a comment you are showing your dedication to the thoughts and musings of others...this is extremely important as you continue developing relationships.

10) Key an Eye out for #Hashtags

Hashtags are short codes used to help keep information on similar topics organized on Twitter. You can add a hashtag to any tweet just by using the # symbol followed by a word or acronym. Hashtags are often used during weekly/monthly meets or other conferences to allow everyone attending that event to discuss it, even if they are not following many of the people at that event.
Here are some good hashtags for teachers to follow : #Titletalk#edchat#elemchat #nerdybookclub #readaloud #teachchat#edtech #midleved #bookaday #psysi

Cybrayman has a list of all the educational chats available on twitter. Dip your toes in and take a look around!